The Digital Imaging Show

Yesterday I attended the Digital Imaging Show in sunny Widnes, and I was treated to a day with fellow photography boffins, along with talks from some of the industry’s leading figures and a chance to check out some new album suppliers too.

The world’s only Double Master in photography, Mr Damian McGillicuddy was there, chatting about his work and his passion for photography and I even had the privilege of holding a light for him whilst he demonstrated how to make a dodgy old conference room look like a scene from a prison movie, using only 3 lights and a chair! Impressive stuff! I actually asked him if I could technically be regarded as his lighting assistant now and he said that absolutely I could! 😉 It just goes to show that there is an image to be created in any given situation, which is what I also do on a regular basis at weddings, given constraints of space and light and time, which should not be a barrier to fantastic image making.

There was some sales based talks, which was more relevant to studio based photographers and also for those keen to up-sell their products; I, on the other hand, am quite anti-sales! If you want an album, that is fine, and if you don’t want one that is also fine! The chap who was speaking would not have been impressed with my approach but each to their own! There was a lady from Aspire speaking and some of her thoughts were quite relevant; so, I should be asking myself “If my business could speak, what would it ask me to do?” and “What do my customers say about me when they meet me or when they receive their albums?” Well, I’d like to think that my business would ask me to take a lunch break as it is now past 2 o’clock and I still haven’t eaten yet, and I would like to think my customers say lovely things about me! I’ve certainly received plenty of thank you cards and reviews over the years, but even so, I fully appreciate that the point that she was making is that there is always room for self-improvement, and I do try to get better as time goes by.

Finally, I saw some very impressive wedding albums from SIM Imaging and Asukabook. To be fair, they looked very similar in quality to the Graphistudio books which I already sell, but I’m always open to trying new suppliers and to giving my clients as much choice as possible; providing the product is good enough of course, so watch this space.